Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December 12: Canadian guitarist and singer, Eric Schenkman of the Spin Doctors is 50-years-old today.

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Spin Doctors are an American alternative rock band formed in New York City, best known for their early 1990s hits, "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong," which peaked the Billboard Hot 100 charts at #7 & #17 respectively.

Besides Schenkman, the current members are Chris Barron, vocalist, Aaron Comess, drums and percussion, and Mark White.

The Spin Doctors began in the late 1980s in New York City. They were originally called the Trucking Company, and included Schenkman, John Popper, and later Chris Barron, who was John Popper's Princeton, NJ high school friend. Popper left the band to focus on his main gig with Blues Traveler full time.

With a name change to Spin Doctors, as well as the addition of Comess and White, the classic line-up was in place by the spring of 1989.

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The Spin Doctors were signed to Epic Records/Sony Music by A&R executive Frankie LaRocka in 1991. The band's Epic debut EP Up for Grabs...Live was recorded live at The Wetlands Preserve in Lower Manhattan, and released in January 1991. In November 1992, these EP tracks were remixed and supplemented by additional live recordings to form the album Homebelly Groove...Live.

The Spin Doctors were known for their somewhat lengthy live shows, sometimes jamming even more than is evident on the live releases. They also often performed double-bill gigs opening for their friends Blues Traveler, with members of both bands all jamming together as the transition from the Spin Doctors set into the Blues Traveler set.

The Spin Doctors' debut studio album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite was released in August 1991. The band continued to play extensive live shows, gaining grassroots fans, as the album was mostly ignored commercially.

In the summer of 1992, the band toured with the first ever line-up of the H.O.R.D.E. festival, sharing the stage with fellow jam bands like Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler and Phish. That summer, commercial popularity heated up, as radio and MTV began playing "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" and "Two Princes."

The album went gold in September 1992, and then received another boost in sales after the band's appearance on Saturday Night Live in October 1992. Additional videos and singles followed. Ultimately it sold over five million copies in the U.S. and another five million overseas, and peaked at # 3 on the Billboard top 200 album chart.

The Spin Doctors' second studio album, Turn It Upside Down, released in June 1994, was not quite as commercially successful as Pocket Full of Kryptonite, though it did sell a million copies in the U.S.

In 1998, the Spin Doctors signed to Uptown/Universal and released Here Comes the Bride in June 1999. During the recording of Here Comes The Bride, Mark White left the band.

The Spin Doctors remained inactive as a band until September 2001, when news about the closing of legendary NYC venue Wetlands sparked the original four members to reunite. On September 7, 2001, the classic, original line-up took the stage for the first time since 1994 to play at Wetlands.

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